The unofficial close to summer competition for our high school athletes each year is the annual Bobby Doyle Summer Classic. While most of our runners utilize the the popular five-miler as a tempo run, it still signifies the last time before competition switches from the synthetic rubber of a track oval or the hard pavement of the roads to the up-and-down terrain and dirt trails of cross country.
Bye, bye summer, hello fall.
Once again it was another successful race at the Doyle Classic where a record 1,000-plus registered for this past Sunday’s event. Taking a look at the past and present high school stars that competed at the early-morning race, and you’ll notice that success followed there, too.
Let’s start with Ben Drezek (Cumberland) and Kenzie Doyle (La Salle Academy), who both finished among the top three in the USATF-NE event. Doyle was second overall in the women’s race with a big-time PR of 26 minutes, 50 seconds, while Drezek placed third in the men’s competition at 23:55. Head coach Gary Gardner and his staff have certainly been doing things right at UMass-Lowell where both runners have extended their careers, and prospered at the collegiate level. Doyle, a senior, still has some eligibility left and will no doubt continue what’s been a superlative last two years for the River Hawks.
Further down the results we have recent Hendricken grad Troy Silvestri, who proved he’s still maintaining his fitness level by placing 20th in 25:31. How about Smithfield’s Jason Padula and Hendricken’s Brayton Gazerro? Here’s two returning runners you can’t ignore this fall come championship time. Padula was the first high-schooler across the line at 25:44, good for 22nd overall. He was 16:30 at the 5K checkpoint. Gazerro wasn’t too far behind, placing 26th in 25:55. He hit his 5K split at 16:41. The Hawks’ Jack Moretta, another top returnee this season, was 37th with a time of 26:19. Among the males, there were plenty more alums mixed in there, such as Hendricken’s Evan MacGregor (31st, 26:06), St. Raphael’s Reilly Johnston (32nd, 26:07), North Smithfield’s Nathan Masi (44th, 26:25), Westerly’s Matt Walker (48th, 26:36) and South Kingstown’s Antonio Capalbo (51st, 26:41) to name a few.
Behind Doyle, there was her former La Salle teammate Kaylie Armitage (eighth, 28:32), Cranston West grad Allie Hackett (ninth, 28:35), Cranston East alum Shayna Cousineau (25th, 30:11), and promising North Kingstown freshman Lucy Stowe (41st, 31:33). Keep an eye on her this season.
We can’t stress enough about supporting this race. Besides providing a quality event with outstanding competition each year, the Doyle Classic is a HUGE supporter of high school and youth running in Rhode Island and nearby Massachusetts. The race has awarded more than $60,000 in scholarships in its history! This year’s recipients were Smithfield’s Elijah Saddlemire, La Salle’s Caroline Cummings, Cranston East’s Madeline Baxter, Lincoln’s Christian Toro and La Salle’s David Parenteau.
We’d like to express our thanks and gratitude to UMass-Lowell’s John Riley, who was the color commentary for our race video. His knowledge of the sport and the top runners in the field was evident throughout our coverage of the race. Last year, Riley was the American East cross-country champion and outdoor 10K titlist.
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You couldn’t ask for a more appropriate way for Sophia Gorriaran to officially close out her stellar high school career. The Harvard-bound runner represented Team USA well at the Pan Am U20 Championships. Among a plethora of victories over the last four years, Gorriaran claimed her first International crown by striking it rich in the 800-meter run with a winning time of 2:04.68, nearly two seconds ahead of Canada’s Sorsha Shiu. Take a look at our lead photo and the photo above. It doesn’t get any better than that. We are certainly looking forward to what’s in store for Gorriaran at the collegiate level.
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Historic Hayward Field was populated by a bunch of Rhode Islanders a few weeks ago at the USATF National Junior Olympic Championships in Oregon. We already knew prior to this competition that Lisa Raye will be one our nation’s best in the years ahead. At this meet, held from July 24-30, she took home the national crown in the 200-meter dash for the age 15-16 division where she posted a fast 23.74 effort, less than two tenths of a second behind her state mark of 23.58. Raye also was a runner-up in the 100m dash where she was timed in 11.99. There was plenty more impressive performance out in Eugene. Isabella Piette, daughter of Woonsocket coach Marc Piette was one of three members of the Ocean State Hammerheads who medaled at the meet. She was the top finisher among them by taking the silver medal in the age 15-16 hammer with a near best of 154-2.
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We asked you to help us out with our previews, and you responded. We’re certainly liking the engagement that’s happening on social media, etc., when we asked for your opinion on who should be among our top 10 boys and girls this cross-country season. One common name that has been popping up is Cole Francis of Narragansett. The Mariner junior added to his case a few weeks ago at the annual Blessing of the Fleet 10M Road Race in his hometown. Francis had no thoughts of a tempo run at the popular ten-miler. He went right at it from the start by averaging 5:32 per-mile pace with a time of 55:19, an effort that placed him ninth overall. As to be expected, loads of local high-schoolers, past and present, were there, including individual winner and former Bishop Hendricken star Jack McMahon, who clocked 50:49. McMahon was a multiple all-stater for the Hawks and the indoor 3,000-meter champion during his senior year. His success continued at Butler University where’s he’s attending grad school now and still some eligibility left. He has PRs of 13:55 for 5K and 29:18 for the 10K.
